Vol. X. 

 1910 



1 Macgillivray, The Region of the Barrier Range. 3I 



twigs, and lined with soft, vv^oolly grasses, the egg cavity measuring 

 1)4^ inches in diameter by i^ inches in depth. Another nest 

 contained three young. Kingfishers were seen several times. 

 Crows (mostly the Short-billed species) had their nests in the 

 Casuaj'hice. 



We made our camp near a large, open swamp, on which were 

 a few Ducks. The country we had walked through has been a 

 deep, loose sandy soil, drifted into hillocks and ridges in places, 

 and supporting a perennial vegetation of salt-bush, blue-bush, 

 and turpentine. The herbage was very good, and comprised a 

 number of flowering annuals ; the deep sandy soil seems to suit 

 them. Scorpions and ground-dwelling spiders were numerous, 

 and lizard tracks were everywhere on the soft sand. There were 

 many Tricoloured and Orange-fronted Chats and Brown Song- 

 Larks. The Orange-fronted Chat keeps more to the open salt- 

 bush country than does the Tricoloured, which is often met with 

 along the watercourses, where the herbage is taller and grows 

 more closely, and amongst the rank growth and scrub on the 

 creek flats. This year the Tricoloured Chat was everywhere 

 more numerous than its congener. The White-fronted Chat 

 usually winters here when the other two species have gone north, 

 but goes south before the spring months. 



In the evening M'Lennan and I walked across the end of 

 the open swamp, through some prickly bushes, over a sand-ridge 

 on the other side, to another swamp. This was surrounded by 

 box, in which were many Miners, Grallinas, White-plumed 

 Honey-eaters, Magpies, and other birds. Crossing a larger 

 sand-ridge, evidently, from the stone remains, an old camping- 

 place of the aborigines, we came to a deep, box-encircled swamp, 

 on which Ducks were numerous. On the return journey we 

 flushed a Brown Song-Lark from the spinach, to find a nest 

 with three young. On reaching camp a nest and two eggs of 

 the Orange-fronted Chat {E. aiirifrons) were reported in a blue- 

 bush near by. 



We were about early next morning. M'Lennan, going 

 through the sandy country back from the camp, found a White- 

 winged Wren's nest built in a blue-bush, and composed of fine 

 grasses and wool ; it contained four eggs, at an advanced stage 

 of incubation. A nest of the Tricoloured Chat with three 

 eggs, and one of E. aurifrons with three young birds, were 

 found. The feathers were just sprouting on the nestlings of 

 E. aurifrons — colour brown ; eyes not open ; gape orange, with 

 two black spots on either side of the tongue, like the young of 

 E. tricolor. 



We made an early start for Bancannia, where we received 

 our mail at the hotel and posted some letters on the coach. 

 Our way from here led us across the lake, dry at the present 

 time, through some stunted box scrub, in which were many 



